WASHINGTON—Amatzia Baram, a distinguished professor of Middle East history at the University of Haifa, has begun a one-year fellowship, his second, at the U.S. Institute of Peace.

Professor Baram is particularly well-known and highly regarded for his expertise in Iraqi history, politics, and society. As a senior fellow, he will concentrate on state-mosque relations in Iraq.

Before commencing his fellowship, he was a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution, where he focused on political institutions in post-Saddam Hussein Iraq. He has also been affiliated with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the Washington Center for Near East Policy.

He has taught at Oxford University's St. Antony's College, the National Defense College in Israel, and Georgetown University.

During his prior fellowship, in 1998, Baram wrote the Special Report "Between Impediment and Advantage: Saddam's Iraq."

He has written dozens of articles about Iraqi politics and society as well as two books: Culture, History and Ideology in the Formation of Ba'athist Iraq, 1968-89 and Building Toward Crisis: Saddam Hussein's Strategy of Survival.

Another Institute fellow, Ray Salvatore Jennings, is in Baghdad and is available to speak with reporters about goings-on there. Jennings has extensive on-the-ground experience in post-conflict situations, having worked in Afghanistan for the World Bank, and in the Balkans and Sierra Leone for the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Journalists can reach Baram or Jennings through John Brinkley at the number above. Others seeking to contact either Baram or Jennings should e-mail the Institute's Jennings Randolph Fellowship Program at fellows@usip.org.